Montreal box throughput down 22.5 percent in April

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

29 May 2009

The Port of Montreal on Thursday reported itself "relatively optimistic about the future," although a 22.5 percent drop in April container traffic reduced performance that has proved comparatively strong against competitors. Coming off a record-setting 2008, and a first quarter in this recession year that recorded traffic downturns not as steep as those elsewhere in North America, the April decline left a cumulative drop of 12.3 percent in TEUs and a year-to-date drop of 17.3 percent in tonnage handled. The port handled 404,539 TEUs during the first four months of the year and 3.7 million metric tons.
Sylvie Vachon, acting president of the Montreal Port Authority, told the MPA’s annual general meeting of the April drop in container traffic but gave no other April detail. The MPA’s published statistics do not give monthly figures but cumulative ones. She noted that "traffic varies erratically during recessions."
Ms. Vachon said container handling reached 1.5 million TEUs in 2008, a growth of 8.1 percent. Container tonnage climbed 7.4 percent in the record year to 13.3 million metric tons. Containers were part of a 3.9 percent increase in total tonnage over 2007, to more than 27 million metric tons, also a record.
For the first quarter this year, as the world recession deepened, she said, Montreal had been alone in North America in keeping its downturn in the number of containers handled to below 10 percent. She credited the port’s structural advantages and its market diversification. The port is close to rail and highway connections with U.S. and Canadian industrial heartlands. She reported large traffic increases in Mediterranean and West Indian routes.
Despite the April drop, Ms. Vachon said the rise in container handling at Montreal "has never slowed down over a long period. This finding, along with the Port’s performance for more than a year, leaves us relatively optimistic about the future."

Source: Journal of Commerce